Allister, J. Rose - Discarded Cowboys [Lone Wolves of Shay Falls 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) by J. Rose Allister Page A

your answer?”
    She shrugged. “I honestly don’t know, either. I just kind of reacted. Maybe I’m going crazy.”
    “Whatever your reasons,” Drew said, “I just want to say thanks.”
    “You ain’t crazy,” Russell said. “You did it because you know you’re mine.”
    That brought her to her feet. “You’re wrong.”
    She shook the dust off the blanket she’d been sitting on and then folded it with obsessive care before marching off toward the camp proper.
    “Didn’t mean to scare you off,” Russell called after her.
    She paused. “Hardly. I’ll be back,” she added.
    Her father was waiting for her outside the tent, wearing his usual brown pants and vest. Zakono struck an even more charismatic figure against the backdrop of the fading light of early evening.
    “Besh,” he said, gesturing to a nearby stump.
    She obeyed and took a seat. “How is Vanje?” she asked, almost afraid of the answer.
    “He was not bitten.” Her father crouched in front of a small fire within a circle of stones. “The claw marks will heal much faster than he will forget, however. Although apparently, the same cannot be said for you.”
    She frowned. “I don’t understand.”
    His eyes narrowed, yet watched her carefully. “I am told you are spending your time of separation near the caged dogs.”
    She swallowed and plucked at her linen skirt. “It just seemed like the safest place out here.”
    “Safest? Chavi , you are sitting in the lion’s den.”
    “I’m not a child anymore, Papa. But I am a woman alone, separated from her clan. The women’s tent houses Meriya and her newborn, and you and Vanje have this one. The only place for me to spend the cleansing time is out in the open—in a place where unnatural creatures roam freely under a full moon.”
    “As do humans with guns,” he said, stoking the flames with a large stick. “I had word that you were involved in the gunfire last night.”
    “I used magic to repel the huntress, and she left peacefully.” More or less.
    One brow rose. “And yet you remain in harm’s way by continuing to lie with dogs.”
    His words curdled in her empty stomach. “I’m not lying with them. I just thought the clearing where they are caged will help ward off other animals out in the woods.”
    “And yet, every moment that you spend speaking to them and giving them your food, you are defiling yourself with their darkness.”
    Her mouth fell open. How did he know she’d been sharing her food?
    He smiled. “Don’t look so surprised. Even were there not whispers among the people, I know you. You not only have your mother’s eyes, but her spirit of kindness as well.”
    Talaitha blinked in shock. Romani people rarely spoke of their dead. It was considered bad luck.
    “Make no mistake,” he went on, “I do not count that as a virtue. Not for this. It comes as no shock that you would feel similar sympathy for those in peril. But that you would act on that sympathy toward shifter kind does. You should learn from her mistakes, not bring about your own lesson.”
    A familiar lump in her stomach rose to her throat at the thought of that terrible day five years ago. “I haven’t forgotten, Papa.”
    His jaw tightened, though a suspicious gloss shone in his eyes. “See that you don’t. Kindness to a werewolf will be met with violence. Mark my words, daughter. Stay clear of those animals, or you will suffer for it.”
    Her pulse hammered as she nodded. “I’ll be careful.” She rose and smoothed her skirt. “For now, the werewolves are caged and pose no threat, and I don’t know where else to go that would be safer.”
    “You cannot be cleansed for return to the clan as long as you remain near the ruvs. I have arranged another tent for you. It is raised at the rear of the housing compound.”
    As far away from Russell and Drew as possible, a fact that twisted in her stomach. She should be glad to avoid them and the constant exposure to their naked perfection, not to